Equally extensive observations have been made as to the average number of persons of various ages who die yearly.  It is always the number of the experiments which gives the law of the probability.  It is on such observations that the actuary founds his estimates of the mortality that exists at any given period of life.  The actuary tells you that he has been guided by the Laws of Mortality.  Now the results must be very regular, to justify the actuary in speaking of Mortality as governed by Laws.  And yet it is so.

Indeed, there would seem to be no such thing as chance in the world.  Man lives and dies in conformity to a law.  A sparrow falls to the ground in obedience to a law.  Nay, there are matters in the ordinary transactions of life, such as one might suppose were the mere result of chance, which are ascertained to be of remarkable accuracy when taken in the mass.  For instance, the number of letters put in the post-office without an address; the number of letters wrongly directed; the number containing money; the number unstamped; continue nearly the same, in relation to the number of letters posted, from one year to another.

Now it is the business of man to understand the laws of health, and to provide against their consequences,—­as, for instance, in the matter of sickness, accident, and premature death.  We cannot escape the consequences of transgression of the natural laws, though we may have meant well.  We must have done well.  The Creator does not alter His laws to accommodate them to our ignorance.  He has furnished us with intelligence, so that we may understand them and act upon them:  otherwise we must suffer the consequences in inevitable pain and sorrow.

We often hear the cry raised, “Will nobody help us?” It is a spiritless, hopeless cry.  It is sometimes a cry of revolting meanness, especially when it issues from those who with a little self-denial, sobriety, and thrift, might easily help themselves.

Many people have yet to learn, that virtue, knowledge, freedom, and prosperity must spring from themselves.  Legislation can do very little for them:  it cannot make them sober, intelligent, and well-doing.  The prime miseries of most men have their origin in causes far removed from Acts of Parliament.

The spendthrift laughs at legislation.  The drunkard defies it, and arrogates the right of dispensing with forethought and self-denial,—­throwing upon others the blame of his ultimate wretchedness.  The mob orators, who gather “the millions” about them, are very wide of the mark, when, instead of seeking to train their crowd of hearers to habits of frugality, temperance, and self-culture, they encourage them to keep up the cry, “Will nobody help us?”

The cry sickens the soul.  It shows gross ignorance of the first elements of personal welfare.  Help is in men themselves.  They were born to help and to elevate themselves.  They must work out their own salvation.  The poorest men have done it; why should not every man do it?  The brave, upward spirit ever conquers.